300 TREES IN WINTER 



POST OAK 

 Box White Oak, Iron Oak. 



Quercus stellata Wang. 

 Q. minor Sarg. ; Q. obtusiloba Michx. 



HABIT — In New Eng-land a small tree with height in southern 

 section up to 60 ft., with trunk diameter of 3 ft.; at northern limit 

 a shrub of 10-35 ft. high with trunk diameter of i^-l ft.; in the open 

 forming a broad dense, round-topped head with stout spreading 

 branches. 



BARK — Flaky; similar to that of White Oak but rather darker, 

 rougher, corresponding more to type of White Oak bark with"^ short 

 oblong ridges; i/^-l inch in thickness. Twigs when i/^ inch to 1 inch 

 in diameter begin to acquire a flaky bark with loose, dark gray scales 

 lifting at sides and ends. 



T"\VIGS — Stout, light orange to reddish-brown; the younger growth by 

 its light color, in striking contrast with darker, older growth which is 

 often almost black; young twigs covered, at least in part, with short, 

 dense orange-brown down, rough to the touch, often not easily noticed 

 without a hand-lens. Late in season down may become almost black 

 and disappear from the more exposed parts of twig. Bases of leaf- 

 scars projecting with a sudden curve from the twig. LENTICELS — 

 pale, minute. LEAVES — often persistent, oblong, obovate, thick with 

 generally 5 rounded lobes, the middle pair much the largest. PITH — • 

 5-pointed, star-shaped. 



BUDS — Broadly ovate, often as broad as long and hemispherical, 

 blunt, rarely acute, generally under 3 mm. long, sometimes up to 6 mm. 

 in length. BUD-SCALES — bright, reddish-brown, sparingly downy. 



FRUIT — Maturing in autumn of first year, single or in pairs or 

 clustered; sessile or short-stalked. NUT — ovate to oblong, 1.5-2 cm. 

 long, generally covered with pale down at apex. CUP — covering 

 %-% the nut, top-shaped or cup-shaped, scales rather thin and flat, 

 only slightly knobby, pale, woolly. Meat sweet. 



COMPARISONS — Readily distinguished from White Oak, which it most 

 nearly resembles, by rough, dirty orange-brown down which is to be 

 found more or less completely covering twigs. Buds are blunter, 

 shorter, generally more nearly hemispherical and of a brighter reddish 

 tinge. 



DISTRIBUTION — Doubtfully from southern Ontario; south to Florida; 

 west to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Mostly in sterile soil near the sea-coast; 

 Massachusetts — southern Cape Cod from Falmouth to Brewster, the most 

 northern station reported, occasional; the islands of Naushon, Martha's 

 Vineyard, where it is rather common, and Nantucket, where it is rare; 

 Connecticut — local; usually in rocky ground on and near the coast; 

 East Lyme and Old Lyme, Branford, New Haven, Orange and Milford, 

 and westward; extending inland as far as Hamden; on Mt. Carmel and 

 Huntington at 350 ft. elevation; Rhode Island — along the shore of the 

 northern arm of Wickford harbor. 



WOOD — Very heavy, hard, close-grained, durable in contact with 

 soil, difficult to season, light or dark brown, with thick lighter colored 

 sapwood; used for fuel, fencing, railroad ties and sometimes in the 

 manufacture of carriages, for cooperage and in construction. 



